Sorry, Wrong Number!

The son-in-law is away for a while -at an "undisclosed location" - a term Curmudgeon likes to use to describe his office/workplace. SIL is not on vacation but I am not at liberty to disclose any more than that.

However, this a.m. Mandy got a phone call from where he is, and the caller said they needed to get in touch with Mandy ASAP! Mandy at that time was with Kurtis who was getting his regular "Play" therapy and after that, she would drop him off at the school center. So I told the caller I would contact Mandy and give her the message right away -via of course, the good old cell phone she has.

Mandy has had her cell phone for what -oh about 3 years now I think it may be. Could even be longer but I'm thinking not -three years or slightly less than that perhaps. So anyway, I mention that so you will know and understand her number is one I've had memorized for quite a long time anyway.

I went to call her and my brain just up and died completely on me! I could not for the life of me think of what her cell phone number is! Finally, I thought of a number that I thought might be right, but just wasn't quite sure. But how else to know unless one dials that number -right?

So I did that and the other phone began to ring -the normal ringing one usually hears when placing a phone call. That was a trigger to me then, for sure that I had the wrong number and when a woman answered the phone, I KNEW it wasn't Mandy's phone, not her voice, so I apologized and hung up.

I knew my problem was with the first three digits of her number and I thought about who I could call who could give me her number. I could call my son-except that his phone starts with the same three numbers and if I wasn't remembering them for Mandy's number, then I sure as heck wasn't remembering them for his either. Older daughter would have the number but I didn't know if she was working today or not so couldn't call her either then.

Finally, I thought about the phone log we now have available on my phone (the house phone, ya know -cause I don't have a cell phone, since we get no reception down in the gully where we live, I figured a cell would be pointless for me to have.)

About a week ago you see, I changed my telephone service over so that it is now through our TV cable and high speed internet connection -one bill for all three services. In doing making that move, it increased my cable bill about $13 a month but because I did that it also eliminated my Verizon bill and THAT will save me $50 a month! A good trade-off there, don't you agree?

So I looked on the phone log and there I saw we'd had an incoming call the other day from my son which gave me then the first three digits of Mandy's number and thankfully, I was then able to call her and give her the message.

Shortly after that, the delivery man showed up with Mandy's latest Avon order. I brought it in and opened the box because I was anxious to get to an item I had ordered on this particular campaign.

I had decided to purchase one of those "Curves" scales! Not because I felt I really needed it for all the stuff they say you can program into it that will aid and abet your diet/exercise program though. No, I wanted it just so I would have a scale that would give me a correct reading ALL the time, unlike the old piece of crap scale we've currently been using.

So, I get the scale out of the packaging and the booklet about how to set it up, etc.

It says on the scale -on a bright red label in the center of the scale -"1. Tap Here; 2. Wait for 0.0 and 3. Step On."

So I tap the scale with my hand -not hard, rather lightly as I don't know how much force is necessary here and don't want to break it.

Nothing happens.

So I flip the scale over to check for any hidden on/off switch or some such and I see the little compartment that holds the battery. And right under that compartment lid I can see there is this red label thing sticking out that says to remove it from the battery compartment.

Okay -how hard can that be to do? Plenty!

For openers, neither Mandy or I could get the little plastic cover over the battery to budge! Couldn't get that to open then to remove that little red tag there.

So, I got out the booklet and called Conair's (the manufacturer) customer service number.

The lady on the other end said to open that thing over the battery -use a key! Fine. We got a key, (no specific key, just a key) slipped it in the little slot and presto-magic, the lid came off and we got the tag removed.

So then, I try to tap the top of the scale again -and still nothing happens.

Again, back to calling the customer service area and this time, a guy is my cr. I explain what's going on and he says to tap the scale with the heel of your foot -rather hard too, he says -and that will activate the whole thing.

I do that and yes, I see 0:0 on there and I step on the scale only to see the little LTD screen say "ERR."

And I curse a bit!

WTF is with this darned thing anyway. Out with the booklet again and I read about how to set up the scale for up to 10 users with each one having their personal data stored there and such. Wonnerful, wonnerful, ya know. But I only need my personal data so I start trying to enter it.

I get as far as setting up that my user name is PS1 and according to the instruction booklet, the screen should then take me to put in my height and I get that screen -which must have been pre-programed to read 4 ft 7 but when I try to enter my height, it doesn't take the numbers but move to the next screen -which is for age and when I try to enter that, it stays put and is showing 20 -for my age (I may wish that were true, but it is only off by oh, about 45 years ya know.

I've tried several times now to get this sucker programmed. One time I did get it to show me the 0:0 thing which is what it is supposed to show if you are going to weigh yourself. Only this time it did show a weight -one that was 3 pounds more than I weighed yesterday at the doctor's office.

And as quickly as that weight showed on the screen, the scale then tripped again and said "ERR!"

You better believe it is!

Wrong numbers are apparently my thing to have to deal with for today!